Vietnam and Japan to mine rare earths

STRENGTH IN DIVERSITY:：Tokyo’s stockpile of vital rare earth minerals could be exhausted by March or April without fresh imports from China, officials have said

Reuters, HANOI

Mon, Nov 01, 2010 - Page 10

Vietnam has chosen to partner Japan in mining rare earth minerals and building a nuclear power plant in the Southeast Asian country, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said yesterday, as Tokyo seeks to reduce its dependence on China.

Japan, the world’s third-biggest nuclear power generator, is also eyeing fast-growing markets to develop nuclear plants as electricity demand in the country is likely to stay flat or rise slightly due to its ageing society and industries going abroad.

Japan has said shipments of rare earths from China were blocked during a diplomatic row sparked by the arrest of a Chinese trawlerman in disputed waters.

Japan’s stockpile of the minerals could be exhausted by March or April without fresh imports from China, officials have said.

China gave repeated assurances at an Asia-Pacific summit in Hanoi that ended on Saturday that it would remain a “reliable supplier” of the high-tech ores used in lasers, superconductors, computers and other electronics.

Nevertheless, Japan and other countries, including the US, say they want to diversify their sources of supplies.

Last week, Japan and India decided to seek cooperation in developing, recycling and finding substitutes for rare earths and rare metals.

Japan believes it has secured the mining rights for a mine in Lai Chau Province of northwestern Vietnam, another Japanese government official said.

feasibility study

Japan’s Sojitz Corp and Toyota Tsusho Corp and a Vietnamese firm are conducting a feasibility study at a deposit in Lai Chau, and the project could produce 3,000 tonnes of rare earth minerals a year or about 10 percent of annual demand in Japan, a Japanese trade ministry official said.

Tokyo is certain that Vietnam will choose out of the three Japanese nuclear plant makers to build two reactors at a nuclear power plant site in central Vietnam, a Japanese government official said.

“Vietnam confirms that the Vietnamese government chooses Japan as a cooperation partner to build two nuclear reactors”, their joint statement said.

joint venture

The three are Hitachi Ltd, allied with General Electric, Toshiba Corp, which controls US power firm Westinghouse, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which has a joint venture with Areva, he said.

Kan also told Dung that Japan, Vietnam’s biggest donor, would provide about ￥79 billion (US$982.7 million) in yen loans to Vietnam for infrastructure projects, a joint statement between the two leaders showed.